Links

jfer: Friday, May 31 9:41 AM

Yesterday, I followed a link on Wisteria to Going Bridal which led me to And the Bride Wore.... I think I've found a new source for bridal fashion inspiration!

Photographer Summary

jfer: Wednesday, May 29 3:59 PM

Stepan and I have now met with 3 photographers. All were very good and appealed to us in one way or another.

Sarah Bork Hamilton was very personable and had an adorable baby. She's an independent photographer and works out of her home. We really liked her style. She was very photojournalistic. We got to look through a proof book from another wedding - she had very few static "let's stand here and smile at the camera" pictures. Most of her photos had movement or natural flow to them. Also, she works in both color and black and white. One thing she mentioned that sounded great was creating an opportunity to photograph me and Step privately at some point in the evening....it sounded very romantic and certainly resulted in some beautiful photos in her portfolio. The two cons are 1) her website sucks....everytime you link to a new picture you get a new pop up ad - that's very irritating! and 2) she works exclusively with 35mm cameras.

Lisa Shepard @ Avant Garde was very nice. You could tell she really enjoyed her job and enjoyed getting to know her clients. I got the feeling that she would work hard to make us feel comfortable with her, her style of photography, and the ultimate product. Her portraits were gorgeous in both black and white and color. They were obviously posed, but they were also very natural. If a bridal portrait were at all possible, I would be leaning heavily towards this photographer. She uses a high quality, large format camera and her husband attends the event as her assistant. All the photos we viewed were very well done and processed with high quality archival papers and inks....it was all very impressive. Another thing we liked was the availability of viewing all photos on the internet. Any orders from family or friends would go through their website and not through me and Stepan. The one big negative is the actual pictures. I've been review some of their albums on-line and there a lot of "reception candids" that were very static...very "let's face the camera and smile".

Kim Francois was our latest appointment. I think she hits the closest to what Stepan and I want in a wedding photographer. She uses medium format cameras as well as 35mm and is interested in getting the emotion of the wedding. Like Sarah Hamilton, she would take me and Stepan off by ourselves for about 10-15 minutes between the ceremony and the reception for our own private photo op. She seemed very professional and capable of getting off the shots we would be interested in getting as well as getting them in a format that we would enjoy looking at....and of course, I have a feeling that she's the most expensive!

We have one more appointment at the end of the week though I don't think either one of us are too enthusiastic about this guy (he is a photoshop guru and takes all his photos in color and selectively prints them in black and white). Concrete decisions should be coming soon...stay tuned...

Photographers

stepan: Thursday, May 23 2:52 PM

There are dozens of wedding photographers in Austin. I have looked at many during the wedding extravaganza and have browsed through many more web sites since. However, having procrastinated so long, most are already booked on our date.

Luckily Meredith, the best maid of honor - ever, managed to find several still available. I've decided that I really like the photo journalistic approach. I prefer black and white (possibly sepia toned) and non-traditional. While we're talking to several studios, I really like the work of Sarah Hamilton and Kim Francois and hope that we can get one of them.

WWB Update - Saturday

jfer: Sunday, May 19 10:49 PM

Will anybody really be surprised to hear that Mom, Meredith, and I putzed around the house most of the morning and early afternoon? To be fair we were waiting for Dad and Diana to get to town and then spent some time visiting before continuing with our shopping. And in the morning, we took Stepan to the Party Pig to show him examples of the invites I like (they offer a 25% discount on their wedding invitations) and did a little shopping at Steinmart...so the time wasn't actually wasted. Elizabeth came over at 3pm and we met Meredith O. at Silk Roads by 4pm. After finding material in champagne we went to Bride's Mart to try on styles. Turns out I do not have an eye for color (big shocker, huh?)...champagne completely washed out both Meredith O. and Elizabeth so it was back to the drawing board on dress colors for the bride's/groom's maids. Luckily they found a wonderful dark chocolate color that looks great on all of them and also compliments the copper of the bridal gown. So it was back to Silk Road for more fabric searching. They were closing as we got there so we didn't get a chance to look at all their swatches. The one we did find was an astounding $43/yard so we may have to go to Joann Fabrics. So the day wasn't completely productive, but we accomplished our goal so we're all happy. Mom even found a dress that looks exquisite on her...I hope she ends up getting it though I may take her a while to decide. As she pointed out, once she "finds a dress, the hunt is over"...and my mom lives for the hunt!

WWB Update - Friday

jfer: Friday, May 17 10:20 PM

We tried another bakery today. The good thing was Stepan was able to join us at Simon Lee Bakery in Pflugerville; the bad thing is the cakes weren't nearly as impressive as yesterday's bakery. After lunch we checked out hotels and have officially reserved blocks of rooms at the Wellesley Inn and Suites for family coming in during the week to help with pre-wedding prep and at the La Quinta for anybody coming in just for the weekend. I'm really pleased with the La Quinta. It's ideally located (on 11th Street) and we got a decent price ($99/night which includes a $10 valet fee) for the type of hotel and its location.

Wedding Weekend Blitz

jfer: Thursday, May 16 10:27 PM

My mom and sister came in town today. They will both be here until Sunday and we'll be spending most of the time shopping around for wedding stuff - mainly bride's maid dresses, but also some cake tasting and invitation research.

Today, we checked out dresses at Melange, invitations at Alegra's, and cakes at Divine Desserts. Results are positive so far. Meredith tried on a champagne colored dress that was a fabulous compliment to my dress fabrics. We found an invitation supplier (William Arthur that uses copper lining and ink that will nicely echo my wedding colors. And the cake lady was friendly and informative and offered us a wonderful sacher torte that was very dreamy.

Things are certainly looking up. I'm looking forward to any other discoveries we make this weekend.

Bride's Maids' Attire Progress

stepan: Monday, May 13 10:25 AM

It looks like the bride's maids will be wearing custom made dresses. Meredith and Rita are coming into town this week to go fabric shopping with Jennifer. I saw this Randolph the Itch cartoon last Friday and found it only appropriate to include.

Raw Eggs

jfer: Saturday, May 4 11:00 PM

Sweetish Hill Bakery sucks raw eggs! I called the store on 6th St. earlier this week to see if I need to make an appointment to taste their wedding cakes. I was told that appointments were unnecessary and any of the employees could assist me whenever I came in. They even said they had a sample book showing cakes they had done in the past. Well, Stepan and I went in today...I'm not sure about Step, but I was really excited about sampling their cake selections...Turns out that Sweetish Hill DOESN'T EVEN DO WEDDING CAKES!!!! That's right, THEY DON'T EVEN DO WEDDING CAKES!!!!....words can't even describe how disappointed I was :-(

Attn Bride's Maids - To make or to buy.....That is the question.

jfer: Wednesday, May 1 2:35 PM

Meredith L, Elizabeth, and Meredith O need to comment on this post....or just send me an email.

Which do you prefer? To buy a dress or to have one made?